How To Get Unlimited Calling For Under $10 Per Month

Is your phone bill starting to add up? Want unlimited calling but don't want to pay a hefty price to get it? Well, you're in luck because there's a way for you to get unlimited U.S. calling for less than $10 with VoIP.

What Is VoIP?

VoIP, which stands for Voice over Internet Protocol, is the method of sending voice communications (phone calls) through the Internet rather than traditional phone lines. With VoIP you can continue to use your same phone with your current phone number, and VoIP's call clarity and quality are identical, if not better, to your traditional phone service. Since the calls are routed through the Internet, VoIP services are cheaper and include a lot more features — such as caller ID, voicemail and other VoIP-specific features — for free.

Our Top Picks for VoIP Phone Service

Unlike traditional phone services, the prices for VoIP services are very upfront and add up to less than $10 per month. We've reviewed the leading VoIP services to see which services are the best. Below are our top choices for unlimited calling under $10 per month.

Best month-to-month plan: If you'd prefer a service that doesn't require a long-term commitment, BasicTalk is the solid choice for you because it offers unlimited calling to the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico for $9.99 per month. For the low monthly price, you not only get unlimited calling but also free features, such as voicemail, caller ID and call waiting. Since BasicTalk is a month-to-month service, you have the freedom to cancel it at any time for no additional charge. Sign up for BasicTalk to get commitment-free VoIP service today.

Best plan with 2-year commitment: If you're not afraid of a long-term commitment, then VOIPo is a good option for you. It only costs $6.21 per month for two years (paid in full at sign up) of unlimited calling to the U.S. and Canada. Another unlimited calling plan to the U.S. and Canada that VOIPo offers costs $8.25 per month for one year of service (paid in full at sign up). Both the two-year and one-year plans include more than 35 calling features for free, including call waiting, caller ID, three-way calling, call forwarding, 411 directory assistance and voicemail. This service also provides a 30-day money back guarantee, which allows you to receive a full refund within the first 30 days of service in the event that you're unhappy. Sign up for VOIPo to start saving money on unlimited calling.

VoIP services don't only provide unlimited calling to the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, they also provide budget-friendly plans for unlimited calling to countries around the world.

Best plan for international calling: If you need a service that provides unlimited calling throughout the world, then Vonage World is the plan for you. This service offers unlimited calling to more than 60 countries for a limited-time price of $9.99 for the first six months of service and then $26.99 per month thereafter when you sign up for one year of the service. Vonage World also includes an array of features like caller ID, call waiting, enhanced call forwarding, do not disturb, three-way calling and anonymous call block. On top of the unlimited calling to places throughout the world and more than 25 features, Vonage also offers a 30-day money back guarantee that allows you to receive a full refund if you're not satisfied with the service. Sign up for Vonage World and get connected with family members and friends throughout the world.

It should be noted that VoIP customers are required to pay additional taxes and fees for services such as Enhanced 9-1-1, which registers your phone number to your home address so emergency services can locate you in the event that you dial 9-1-1. These taxes and fees are not costly at all and usually add up to less than $3 per month.

Is VoIP difficult to set up?

VoIP is as easy to set up as your traditional phone. When you sign up for a VoIP service, the service will send you an analog adapter that converts your voice and allows it to travel through your Internet router and be received on the other end of the call.

To set up VoIP, simply connect your touch-tone phone to the adapter and then connect the adapter to your Internet router. The image on the right displays the standard VoIP adapter that's provided by the VoIP service.

Since the adapter only takes up one Ethernet port, you'll still be able to use the other ports on your router for anything you wish. It's important to note, contrary to what some think, you do not need to have your computer on in order for your VoIP service to work. You simply need to have some sort of high-speed Internet and connect the adapter to the Internet router and touch-tone phone.

Want to know more about VoIP? Check out our VoIP reviews to find out more about individual services or visit our VoIP FAQs to learn more about VoIP.

Don't you still need a landline for your modem to operate? I pay about $40 per month for a land line and a phone line from my phone company. Is there any way to use majicJack, Ooma or Obi without also having to have a land line?

AlecMay 21, 2014

I have 2 phones. One is a Tracfone cellphone, the ONLY "true" prepaid cellphone service (to my knowledge) in the USA. Other services calling themselves "prepaid" or "without contract" aren't being entirely honest. If you have to pay a set monthly fee, guess what – you're in a month-to-month contract with the service (no different than an apartment rental contract). Well, there is actually one difference. If you don't pay your apartment rent, landlords can't evict you quickly – at least not in most states. But, if you don't pay your monthly cell bill, providers can flip your switch off without notice. I paid around $45 for so many minutes of airtime plus so many days of service … and this was back in 2012 (grin). Haven't paid them a penny since and the phone works great.

My second phone is a MagicJack Plus VOIP phone. This is my "main" home phone service. I only use my Tracfone during a power outage or when I'm on the road. But, I take my MagicJack along with me when I'll be staying in hotels or motels with WIFI.

The cost of this service depends upon whether or not you want 911 capabilities. The MagicJack service itself only costs $29.95 yearly (cheaper if you pay for a 5-year service plan). In my case, Lewis County and the state of Washington both have taxes for 911 service which must be collected before service is activated. That totals $11.70 yearly. Total costs are $41.65 yearly.

Two things to remember "before" purchasing a MagicJack – assuming you do want 911 service. In some locales, 911 taxes can be quite high. So, "look before you leap." On the other hand, some locales consider 911 calling a "right" not a "service" (ie., no taxes). These locales, if asked, will give you a 10-digit "911-equivalent" number you can enter into your speed-dial setup – a number that will connect you instantly to the same emergency communication center operators that 911 callers reach.

MagicJack users can call anywhere in the USA & Canada without charge. And depending upon the speed of your Internet connection, call quality can be anywhere from "next door" quality to "tin-can-phone quality." In my case, according to SpeedTest.net, my CenturyLink DSL line gives me 10.12 mbps downlink, 660 kbps uplink. For VOIP to work properly, you need a "consistent" speed of at least 128 kbps. Out of all the calls I've made with MagicJack, only one call "dropped out" in mid-call. On other calls, I called from my west coast home to my son in Harrisburg, PA and Manhattan, NY. We spoke for over 30 minutes on each call with "next door" quality.

Note that I'm a retiree who lives alone. If you live in a larger household, and if "junior" is playing online Dungeons & Dragons (or downloading movies/MP3s) while you're trying to make calls, the quality of those calls may differ substantially.

Corinne LarimoreMay 7, 2014

I bundle my Internet costs with my landlines phones, so even if I could get a reduced rate for my landlines, I'm wondering what it would cost me to get Internet service. I don't really know for sure the breakdown between my phones and the Internet and I could get Skype if I wanted to, but that still leaves finding a reasonably priced Internet service.

Any suggestions?

alApril 30, 2014

nettalk 29.99 /year
1 time equipment cost $60 which includes 1 year service

RobApril 28, 2014

Obi BEATS Ooma in every aspect, from a box one third of the price to higher user satisfaction, check Amazon website for user ratings, feedback and pricing.

Buck SaverApril 21, 2014

Consider majicJack about $40 a year. Best deal I have found yet.

Suzan CarneApril 16, 2014

Are you able to take your current land line phone number when going with Ooma, or do you have to select a new number from their list(s).

ScottApril 16, 2014

I purchased Ooma a couple of years ago and could not be happier! Aside from purcfhasing the device outright for $140, I only pay local and state taxes which total $3.20/month (the tax amount will vary from state to state so it could be slightly more or less), regardless of calling local, long-distance or international. To the point of Eljay's question – when you buy Ooma you get to pick your phone number (from a range of numbers with local prefixes) and you do have 9-1-1 access which is traceable back to your street address.

SteveApril 12, 2014

Can somebody tell the~bits /minute VoIP consumes?will at&t bill me extra VoIP coming over my wireless internet connection(they billed me extra for text messages that they sent to my hotshot telling me my bill ready )?Does the box have a USB port or wifi connection capabilities so i can come off the hotspot without using a router?I did not find any Q&A's covering these concerns on the servive provider sites.

RobertApril 11, 2014

If you're willing to spend a few extra dollars for the device ooma can't be beat! I'm paying $4 a month for federal taxes on the phone line and I get unlimited calling in us and canada. It includes caller ID voice mail and call forwarding. I also have an iPad app that let's me listen to my voicemails and even make calls over wifi or my cell service. Just an amazing product. I'll never go back to either landlines or cable phones.

alvinoApril 5, 2014

SUCH FOOLISHNESS ! BUY A DEVICE SUCH AS OOMA. YOU PAY ONE TIME, HOOK IT UP, AND FORGET ABOUT PAYING MONTHLY FEES (YOU ONLY HAVE TO PAY TAXES–NOT MUCH COST).

AWE

Glen LangApril 4, 2014

Julie, my question is my wife takes a long time to come as well as end a call. I need suggestions. Thanks in advance.

ooma luvApril 3, 2014

You didn't mention Ooma. For the 4 years that I have used them, they have been ranked number 1 in the market. Initial hardware purchase is about $140 and monthly is about 3.75 for basic service (which still includes a lot)

Eljay KayApril 3, 2014

Do any of these VOIP services allow you to call 9-1-1 emergency directly, without knowing a local access number or getting the clerical offices (closed evenings, weekends and holidays, have no emergency operators on site)? If not, I'm sticking to my metered local-only home phone service that I almost never use except to call 9-1-1. $12.95 is a cheap price to save your life.

James FrostApril 2, 2014

Vonage, which is your pick for "Best plan for international calling" has some hidden caveats that people need to be aware of.

First off, the $26.99 advertised price is not really the amount you pay. It is closer to $40.00. That difference is NOT due to government-mandated taxes and fees. It is extra profit that Vonage collects under the guise of "fees".

The second important point to note is that even though Vonage spends a lot of money advertising the service to be "unlimited" it is not really unlimited, and if you use too many minutes, they will either terminate your service or bump you up to a more expensive plan. I have not been able to figure out what the threshold is – according to Vonage, they use "a combination of factors" which the customers are not privy to.

Rose WalshMarch 31, 2014

If the power is out you cannot use this service to call your electric company. I will stick to my trac fone.

JellyBeanMarch 30, 2014

BD1, yes it means you have to be connected to a wifi network either at your home or at work or where you travel to. Several fast food establishments offer free wifi as do most motels and hotels. In a limited number of communities there is free wifi available so if you happen to live in one of those you would be better situated for a VOIP phone if you want to be mobile out side of the range of your router, average 300 feet depending on a number of factors and influences. Think of it as more of a magic jack type of device that is dependent on you providing it with a wifi connection to access the internet. It is also note worthy to understand that the VOIP quality is dependent on the quality of your internet connection and it available band width. If you have a dial up connection or a slow DSL connection where the available band width is limited you may here broken words and incomplete sentences when trying to have a conversation. Bandwidth, bandwidth, bandwidth.

BD1March 29, 2014

Does this mean that I can only make a phone call if I'm at home with my router? Are there any portable routers that use any Wi-Fi system available? Thank you.

mary kunstwekerMarch 29, 2014

Watching aerobatics over Greece's Corinth canal changed my life and that of my batteries which soon became as charged as a message from Steve Canyon. So I stopped watching.
It's important for me to be able to dominate my batteries– especially D-cells– and, thus
I prefer to keep them in a weakened state.
To illustrate my last remark, if a young Phoebe Snow were to roll a ball across the floor of a moving train, how fast was the ball moving? To Snow, it might look like the ball was moving at 1 mile per hour. However, to someone watching the train go by, the ball would appear to be moving the one mile per hour plus the speed of the train– ten miles per hour. To, say, Konstantin Petrovich Feoktistov, watching the event from space, the ball would be moving the one mile per hour Snow had noticed, plus the ten miles an hour of the speed of the train, plus the speed of the earth.
And that's a long, long time.
Canyon still messages me, sure, but not nearly as often relative to the speed of the ball rolling.

Julie MyhreMarch 28, 2014

Hi Cisco,

Good question! No, you will not need to have any landline with VoIP because the service doesn't work like a traditional phone. Instead VoIP services use the Internet to connect calls. So as long as you have high-speed Internet at your home, you're all ready to change to VoIP.

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About Author

Julie Myhre

Julie is the Senior Manager of Content at NextAdvisor.com and has more than four years of professional writing experience. Since the beginning of her career, Julie's writing has been published by numerous nationally-recognized news websites, including USA Today, Business Insider, Wired Insights and American City Business Journals, among others. She is an alumna of San Jose State University and currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. Follow her on Twitter @JulieAdvisor.

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